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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Today I went out into Shawnee State Forest in southernmost Ohio, with a group lead by Doug Wynn. Doug is a high school teacher from Columbus, who is also a longtime rattlesnake researcher and recognized expert. He uses radio telemetry to track timber rattlesnakes. Shawnee is the last Ohio stronghold of this poisonous snake.

I'll tell the entire story about our snake hunt in a post in the near future. For now, I'll share with you a short video of one of the snakes Doug recently caught and marked with an embedded microchip. This female is set to be re-released into the wild soon.

Even though I was a good six feet away from the snake, it still gave me chills to see it rattling in a coiled pose.

About Bill

Bill of the Birds

Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest by day. He's also a keen birder, the author of many books, a dad, a field trip leader, an ecotourism consultant, a guitar player, the host of the "This Birding Life" podcast, a regular speaker/performer on the birding festival circuit, a gentleman farmer, and a fungi to be around. His North American life list is somewhere between 673 and 675. His favorite bird is the red-headed woodpecker. His "spark bird" was a snowy owl. He has watched birds in 25 countries and 44 states. But his favorite place to watch birds is on the 80-acre farm he shares with his wife, artist/writer Julie Zickefoose. Some kind person once called Bill "The Pied Piper of Birding" and he has been trying to live up to that moniker ever since.